DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/26/2012
Anger over the power price issue now erupting in Mindanao is one that this country has not seen since the initial outbursts against the power purchase agreements in Metro Manila almost a decade ago.
North Cotabato Gov. Emilou Talio-Mendoza, for instance, has made direct hits at three power oligarchs operating in Mindanao. Without mincing words, she accused them of engineering intentional power shortages to force Mindanao to accept the privatization of the vast Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, where the cost of generation is less than P0.01 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) given the systems full depreciation. What privatization will do is bring about high power rates, which is what the oligarchs and multilateral financial agencies intend for Mindanao. Good thing she was joined by General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio in opposing this move.
As expected, privatization advocates are pinning the blame on those who oppose power privatization. The March 22 editorial of Malaya, for example, argues that Davao City, which accepted privatization, does not experience blackouts. What they refuse to highlight is that power rates in Iligan City and the larger province of Lanao del Norte, where power outages frequently occur, hover at P6.56/kWh, compared to Davaos independent power producer (IPP) rates of P8.75/kWh that are at least 25 percent higher.
Evidently, their logic is that people can get uninterrupted power, but at the oligarchs price. Its nothing short of blackmail.
Its good that Iligan Citys residents have refused to sign the 20-year IPP contracts that aim to tie them to exorbitant power rates because they know that the current power shortages, which can be abated with the optimization of hydroelectricity, are merely artificial and short-term.
But absurd as the situation already is, blackmail rates in Mindanao are not even uniform. In North Cotabato, a Lopez company is reportedly asking P14/kWh for power from the already privatized Mt. Apo geothermal plants, which is dumbfounding given that the people are being made to choose between the blackouts and the high rates when the geothermal resource sits right in their province.
On the part of our legislators, there has been a growing clamor to look into the issue, too. But, even as such calls are made by Senators Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel or Representatives Vicente Belmonte, Rufus Rodriguez and Angelo Palmones, the chairmen of the respective Senate and House energy committees have been less forthcoming.
Serge Osmena, for one, blames Gloria Arroyo for politicizing the rates in yielding to populist demands by ordering the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to reduce its generation charge below costs, arguing that this is why the Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) mandates the sale of Napocors plants to the private sector, so that the private owners will not have to compete with government plants whose rates can be subsidized.
Surely, given his position, Serge is well aware of several anomalies in the largely privatized Philippine power sector today, such as the Wholesale Electricity Spot Markets casino-like pricing that has yielded rates as high as P60/kWh from private IPPs; and yet he does nothing. Is that not a case of politicizing policies in favor of price gouging?
Kinship with a known oligarchic clan should have also disqualified Serge from his committee chairmanship due to conflict-of-interest; same with his House counterpart, Dina Abad, whose spouse is the author of the Omnibus Power Bill (precursor to the Epira). But, instead of declining for reason of delicadeza, these solons obediently follow the diktats of the oligarchs and the International Monetary Fund. Dina even kept on weighing down all proposed inquiries on the power issue for the past decade or so.
Strictly speaking, power rates have never been subsidized by government because consumers themselves have paid for these directly and not just as taxpayers. Funding for all the investments of Napocor is also sourced straight from the pockets of consumers and taxpayers. So whats all that talk about subsidies?
Privatization merely transferred consumers investments in state-owned power plants and, consequently, these plants surpluses or profits multiplied several times over to private pockets. The standard modus operandi is epitomized by the Aboitiz Groups purchase of Napocor Power Barges 117 and 118 three years ago for $30 million, which were then revalued at $80 million to form the basis of new rates worth P14/kWh.
In the same way, the intentional power crisis in Mindanao is aimed to force a privatization of the single biggest public asset there that can keep power rates down against the price predation of the power oligarchs. Sadly, successive Yellow regimes supported by the oligarchs (Cory, Ramos, Arroyo and PeNoy) have all done a Noynoying of the Agus-Pulangi by failing to dredge it at the very least, thereby reducing its generating capacity.
Meanwhile, captive government agencies continue to sell off Napocor assets for pitiful ditties while concocting efficiency formulas that give incentives to IPPs, raising their rates of return to as high as 17 percent, and allowing no-bidding on equipment and supplies purchases that are overpriced by up to 1000 percent. The Performance Based Regulation schemes three-year revaluation of all assets based on replacement value alone makes these asset values always go up (never to depreciate) and, as a result, the rate base as well.
The Epira was passed in 2001 after P500,000 individual payolas were allegedly circulated. Thereafter, the oligarchs legislative stooges were given free rein to stifle any questions or objections. Indeed, no progress can happen while they remain in their posts; but then, replacements must be thoroughly vetted by the public, too, lest the new ones proceed to milk the power oligarchs for their mutual benefit.
Amid all the gloom, the courageous Mindanaoans have already prepared a P5-billion class suit against government officials responsible for this intentional power crisis in Mindanao. My only advice: Make sure that the case does not land on the oligarchs assets in the judiciary, most especially those being bandied about by Malacaang and the Yellow media as cleaner than clean.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNNs HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., after Lent, on Mining: Bomb or Boon?; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The trending game
BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
3/24-25/2012
It has never seeped into the minds of the so-called beacons in our society that the dispensation of justice has never been or can ever be a popularity contest. The judges, even from among primeval civilizations, do not judge the accused on the basis of what is popular; or condemn him because the people lust for his blood, or absolve him because he is influential. Civilized societies judge the accused on the basis of the evidence, and to impose the penalty if guilty, but not on what the public wants.
The survey conducted by Pulse Asia was an uncalled-for interference on the processes of the Senate impeachment court. It was a subtle attempt to influence the judgment of the impeachment court by the clever way of orchestrating “public sentiment.” There was malice much that it attempts to lay down the predicate that accused Chief Justice Renato Corona is guilty. Although only 47 percent of the respondents say Corona is guilty, the Philippine Daily Inquirer highlighted that in its banner to condition the readers that indeed the fellow is guilty.
Invariably, it forewarns the 24 members of the Senate impeachment court that they have no business acquitting him or that it would be morally wrong for them to pronounce him not guilty. To deviate could make them answerable to the people. The survey amounts to prejudging the accused, and Pulse Asia is now acting as the unwitting spokesman of President Aquino who earlier declared he will not accept anything less than a guilty verdict.
Even if we take it that 47 percent indicated he is guilty, the 43 percent undecided does not stand for nothing. Neither could Pulse Asia and Inquirer assume Corona could eventually be judged guilty. The same can be said for the 5 percent claiming to have no basis. Remember, the 43 percent undecided knows the issue but could not decide. In that sense they have their grave doubt on the guilt of Corona. The 5 percent represents those who do not know what is going on, while the other 5 percent says he is not guilty.
In that, one could deduce that the 43 percent undecided and the 5 percent claiming to have no basis are likely to judge Corona not guilty because it would be an insult if after 34 days of marathon hearing they have not been able to come out with their own preliminary conclusion of the case. The 43 percent undecided is a slap on the face of the prosecution because it highlights its failure to explain why its members acted more like clowns than as lawyers. It is not the duty of the defense to convince the public about the innocence of Corona. Theirs is to rebut all those allegations by presenting their own witnesses and evidence that he is not guilty!
The uncanny thing is that as the hearing progresses, the public comes to realize that the prosecution has not proven anything. Even if we give it to them that Corona is guilty, they already missed that opportunity. Many of the previously anti-Corona are now pro-Corona precisely because of the prosecution’s stupidity. Such pathetic situation reminded me of that old adage that if the prosecution is weak, the accused need not even need a lawyer. All that Corona did was to give them enough rope to hang themselves with.
The latest of this episode is the alleged erroneous Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. That tart-wagging Senator Joker Arroyo is right that mistakes and errors in the SALN is not an impeachable offense. It cannot even be a misdemeanor. Errors and mistakes can always be rectified that is why we have the Civil Service Commission to check all those SALNs. What is impeachable if Corona did not file his SALN?
The same is true in the filing of income tax. Nobody goes to jail for committing an error or mistake in his income tax declaration. All taxpayers are given the widest leeway to explain why they did not pay for this or why they failed to declare some of their income. In that, taxpayers merely avail of their right to a tax deduction which is perfectly legal. It is the right of taxpayers to reduce the amount they want to pay just as it is the duty of the BIR to dispute that. What is being punished is tax evasion for in that instance the taxpayer purposely did not file his income tax.
To make things worse, all the errors the prosecution claims to have discovered in the SALN of Corona reveals their pathetic ineptness. Errors were bound to happen because the prosecution was holding on to titles and documents of properties that were either not owned by Corona, or have long been canceled, sold or disposed of. Some are even spurious to say the least. In which case, how could the prosecution proceed to punish Corona when knowingly it was they who used and presented that as their evidence?
My greatest fear is that Pulse Asia and all those hacks of this regime would from now on regularly dish out their alleged survey, gradually increasing the number of respondents pointing to Corona as guilty. Pulse Asia hopes to substitute the idiotic shortcomings of the prosecution forgetting that the Filipino people are not interested on what the supposed public opinion has to say, but in knowing the truth.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Rod P. Kapunan
3/24-25/2012
It has never seeped into the minds of the so-called beacons in our society that the dispensation of justice has never been or can ever be a popularity contest. The judges, even from among primeval civilizations, do not judge the accused on the basis of what is popular; or condemn him because the people lust for his blood, or absolve him because he is influential. Civilized societies judge the accused on the basis of the evidence, and to impose the penalty if guilty, but not on what the public wants.
The survey conducted by Pulse Asia was an uncalled-for interference on the processes of the Senate impeachment court. It was a subtle attempt to influence the judgment of the impeachment court by the clever way of orchestrating “public sentiment.” There was malice much that it attempts to lay down the predicate that accused Chief Justice Renato Corona is guilty. Although only 47 percent of the respondents say Corona is guilty, the Philippine Daily Inquirer highlighted that in its banner to condition the readers that indeed the fellow is guilty.
Invariably, it forewarns the 24 members of the Senate impeachment court that they have no business acquitting him or that it would be morally wrong for them to pronounce him not guilty. To deviate could make them answerable to the people. The survey amounts to prejudging the accused, and Pulse Asia is now acting as the unwitting spokesman of President Aquino who earlier declared he will not accept anything less than a guilty verdict.
Even if we take it that 47 percent indicated he is guilty, the 43 percent undecided does not stand for nothing. Neither could Pulse Asia and Inquirer assume Corona could eventually be judged guilty. The same can be said for the 5 percent claiming to have no basis. Remember, the 43 percent undecided knows the issue but could not decide. In that sense they have their grave doubt on the guilt of Corona. The 5 percent represents those who do not know what is going on, while the other 5 percent says he is not guilty.
In that, one could deduce that the 43 percent undecided and the 5 percent claiming to have no basis are likely to judge Corona not guilty because it would be an insult if after 34 days of marathon hearing they have not been able to come out with their own preliminary conclusion of the case. The 43 percent undecided is a slap on the face of the prosecution because it highlights its failure to explain why its members acted more like clowns than as lawyers. It is not the duty of the defense to convince the public about the innocence of Corona. Theirs is to rebut all those allegations by presenting their own witnesses and evidence that he is not guilty!
The uncanny thing is that as the hearing progresses, the public comes to realize that the prosecution has not proven anything. Even if we give it to them that Corona is guilty, they already missed that opportunity. Many of the previously anti-Corona are now pro-Corona precisely because of the prosecution’s stupidity. Such pathetic situation reminded me of that old adage that if the prosecution is weak, the accused need not even need a lawyer. All that Corona did was to give them enough rope to hang themselves with.
The latest of this episode is the alleged erroneous Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. That tart-wagging Senator Joker Arroyo is right that mistakes and errors in the SALN is not an impeachable offense. It cannot even be a misdemeanor. Errors and mistakes can always be rectified that is why we have the Civil Service Commission to check all those SALNs. What is impeachable if Corona did not file his SALN?
The same is true in the filing of income tax. Nobody goes to jail for committing an error or mistake in his income tax declaration. All taxpayers are given the widest leeway to explain why they did not pay for this or why they failed to declare some of their income. In that, taxpayers merely avail of their right to a tax deduction which is perfectly legal. It is the right of taxpayers to reduce the amount they want to pay just as it is the duty of the BIR to dispute that. What is being punished is tax evasion for in that instance the taxpayer purposely did not file his income tax.
To make things worse, all the errors the prosecution claims to have discovered in the SALN of Corona reveals their pathetic ineptness. Errors were bound to happen because the prosecution was holding on to titles and documents of properties that were either not owned by Corona, or have long been canceled, sold or disposed of. Some are even spurious to say the least. In which case, how could the prosecution proceed to punish Corona when knowingly it was they who used and presented that as their evidence?
My greatest fear is that Pulse Asia and all those hacks of this regime would from now on regularly dish out their alleged survey, gradually increasing the number of respondents pointing to Corona as guilty. Pulse Asia hopes to substitute the idiotic shortcomings of the prosecution forgetting that the Filipino people are not interested on what the supposed public opinion has to say, but in knowing the truth.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Radical reversal needed
DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/23/2012
The day after our Monday column on the Mindanao power sabotage and blackmail, our comrade in the fight against the electricity supply manipulation rang up early in the morning. Jojo Borja, stockholder of Iligan Light and Power, told me that the long power blackouts had suddenly stopped just two days after our GNN episode on the issue last Saturday evening.
For good measure, the Monday papers started to reflect the struggle we have waged for months as some politicians have reportedly called for investigations. The name of Serge Osmena even cropped up after being forced to respond to questions from fellow senators, namely, Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel. In the Lower House, Mindanao Reps. Vicente Belmonte and Rufus Rodriguez have clamored for action, too. While were happy over these actions, why did they have to come so late? More importantly, can our lawmakers provide the long-term solution by, first of all, reversing the wretched Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) posthaste?
The citizens, power sector players, as well as business and local political leaders of Mindanao have long demanded the mobilization of available power resources, which the oligarchs minions in the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. have kept mothballed despite billions of pesos in losses in the regions economy.
At the same time, Mindanaoans, particularly the electric cooperatives (ECs), have made clear their very strong objection to the privatization of the hydroelectric plants of Mindanao, such as the Agus-Pulangui system. Not all of them, though, realize that the solution to the entire nations power price woes lies in this very demand the end to privatization of the power sector. And this would ultimately mean the repeal of the Epira, a law that bans the public sector from setting up and maintaining its own non-profit power generation facilities that are funded by the peoples captive patronage via monthly payments.
If Philippine media had any real dedication to the nation and the peoples welfare, this power price issue should always be the major news item all the time. Sadly, mainstream media, which carry the most palpable daily impact, are hopelessly in the chains of the oligarchs control.
We have been told that one party-list congressman has been boycotted by ABS-CBN in the past few days since he started raising the issue and named the power oligarchs.
Of course, we all know whose diktats are followed at ABS-CBN, and the other major TV networks are no less controlled.
There used to be laws against such over-reaching control of business and media, but not anymore.
Besides PeNoy safeguarding his clans' own P10-billion interest in Hacienda Luisita, coupled with his desire to have an Aquino high court, I have long held that the Corona impeachment hullabaloo is part of a deliberate PR strategy of the spinmasters (and puppet masters) of Malacaang to divert from the truly crucial issues of the country.
Imagine: Even when the power crisis had already caused billions in daily losses to Mindanao, rousing a seemingly incipient rebellion from the locals there, this power crisis issue still couldn't make it to the banner of the major news outfits!
You can just see the twisted priority of the patently pro-PeNoy op-ed and news writers who wont be shaken to give way to this vital economic issue even for a day. Still, I am thankful that the Mindanao power rebellion has at last come to fore.
Corollary to our power price woes is our fossil fuel supply that is always at the mercy of world market prices, which absolutely do not reflect true global demand.
Robert Reich, professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a former Bill Clinton Labor Secretary, explains in his article (Why Republicans Arent Mentioning the Real Cause of Rising Prices at the Gas Pump) that Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of all contracts. Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market (allowing) them to push oil prices higher and higher not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.
Why then do we 95 million Filipinos allow ourselves to fall prey to these oil speculators greed and whims? For that matter, why does Obama allow his 313 million US citizens to be victimized by the same?
It's because the world has relinquished control to the financial mafias through democratic elections, which are really akin to their brand of political UFCs (Ultimate Fighting Championships). Whats worse is that in the US, Jews control that countrys money.
So it is imperative for the Philippines to oust the domestic lackeys of the Global Finance Mafia, like the one running 60 percent of our power supply today.
In 1986, Cory Aquino reversed the public sector or state-led economic development model by enshrining in her Constitution several private sector-led schemes while handing the Bangko Sentral to a monetary board composed of five from the private sector and only two from government (instead of the other way around).
That is why, above all else, a radical counter-revolution to the Yellows turnover of our government to the oligarchs is needed now more than ever.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNNs HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., after Lent, on Mining: Bomb or Boon?; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/23/2012
The day after our Monday column on the Mindanao power sabotage and blackmail, our comrade in the fight against the electricity supply manipulation rang up early in the morning. Jojo Borja, stockholder of Iligan Light and Power, told me that the long power blackouts had suddenly stopped just two days after our GNN episode on the issue last Saturday evening.
For good measure, the Monday papers started to reflect the struggle we have waged for months as some politicians have reportedly called for investigations. The name of Serge Osmena even cropped up after being forced to respond to questions from fellow senators, namely, Chiz Escudero and Koko Pimentel. In the Lower House, Mindanao Reps. Vicente Belmonte and Rufus Rodriguez have clamored for action, too. While were happy over these actions, why did they have to come so late? More importantly, can our lawmakers provide the long-term solution by, first of all, reversing the wretched Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) posthaste?
The citizens, power sector players, as well as business and local political leaders of Mindanao have long demanded the mobilization of available power resources, which the oligarchs minions in the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. have kept mothballed despite billions of pesos in losses in the regions economy.
At the same time, Mindanaoans, particularly the electric cooperatives (ECs), have made clear their very strong objection to the privatization of the hydroelectric plants of Mindanao, such as the Agus-Pulangui system. Not all of them, though, realize that the solution to the entire nations power price woes lies in this very demand the end to privatization of the power sector. And this would ultimately mean the repeal of the Epira, a law that bans the public sector from setting up and maintaining its own non-profit power generation facilities that are funded by the peoples captive patronage via monthly payments.
If Philippine media had any real dedication to the nation and the peoples welfare, this power price issue should always be the major news item all the time. Sadly, mainstream media, which carry the most palpable daily impact, are hopelessly in the chains of the oligarchs control.
We have been told that one party-list congressman has been boycotted by ABS-CBN in the past few days since he started raising the issue and named the power oligarchs.
Of course, we all know whose diktats are followed at ABS-CBN, and the other major TV networks are no less controlled.
There used to be laws against such over-reaching control of business and media, but not anymore.
Besides PeNoy safeguarding his clans' own P10-billion interest in Hacienda Luisita, coupled with his desire to have an Aquino high court, I have long held that the Corona impeachment hullabaloo is part of a deliberate PR strategy of the spinmasters (and puppet masters) of Malacaang to divert from the truly crucial issues of the country.
Imagine: Even when the power crisis had already caused billions in daily losses to Mindanao, rousing a seemingly incipient rebellion from the locals there, this power crisis issue still couldn't make it to the banner of the major news outfits!
You can just see the twisted priority of the patently pro-PeNoy op-ed and news writers who wont be shaken to give way to this vital economic issue even for a day. Still, I am thankful that the Mindanao power rebellion has at last come to fore.
Corollary to our power price woes is our fossil fuel supply that is always at the mercy of world market prices, which absolutely do not reflect true global demand.
Robert Reich, professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a former Bill Clinton Labor Secretary, explains in his article (Why Republicans Arent Mentioning the Real Cause of Rising Prices at the Gas Pump) that Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of all contracts. Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market (allowing) them to push oil prices higher and higher not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.
Why then do we 95 million Filipinos allow ourselves to fall prey to these oil speculators greed and whims? For that matter, why does Obama allow his 313 million US citizens to be victimized by the same?
It's because the world has relinquished control to the financial mafias through democratic elections, which are really akin to their brand of political UFCs (Ultimate Fighting Championships). Whats worse is that in the US, Jews control that countrys money.
So it is imperative for the Philippines to oust the domestic lackeys of the Global Finance Mafia, like the one running 60 percent of our power supply today.
In 1986, Cory Aquino reversed the public sector or state-led economic development model by enshrining in her Constitution several private sector-led schemes while handing the Bangko Sentral to a monetary board composed of five from the private sector and only two from government (instead of the other way around).
That is why, above all else, a radical counter-revolution to the Yellows turnover of our government to the oligarchs is needed now more than ever.
(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNNs HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., after Lent, on Mining: Bomb or Boon?; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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